Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cat’s Cradle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Religion
Governance, Politics, and Nationhood
Absurdity and Meaninglessness
Summary
Analysis
Two weeks after sending his letter to John, Newt wrote to Frank about his new girlfriend, Zinka. She is a Ukrainian midget, who eventually went to the Russian embassy seeking to go back home; she found Americans “too materialistic.”
John later realizes that Zinka was a Soviet spy, tasked with obtaining the ice-nine technology from Newt. She is thus emblematic of the Cold War atmosphere of paranoia, deception, and imminent destruction.
Themes
